Green on white and white on green, Snowdrops through the frost are seen

[m31andy]

So the snowdrops have been around for over three weeks and the purple croci are just starting to bloom. Another week and I must get down to Kew to see the crocus carpet. It's a beautiful sight and only really eclipsed by their bluebell carpet a couple of months later. If I remember, I'll take a camera with me to get some piccies down.

As for you lot, you're all sacked. Well, the ones that know of my slight obsession with plants, that is. I've been bemoaning the lack of books on the purely folkloric magickal uses of plants for several years now. Sure, Roy Vickery and Margaret Baker have had a bish, but neither book is comprehensive in the slightest. So I've been using Grieves, plus a couple of magickal plant books (Garden of Hades and Herbcraft) to plug any gap and have been threatening to write my own. Seems that I've been preceeded by over a hundred years... Why didn't anyone *tell* me about The Folk-Lore of Plants by TH Thistelton-Dyer???

Ah well, Amazon, as ever, doth provide. Let's see what's left to write about, once I've looked.

In related news, I'm still stuck as ever on the vexing question of the Saturn obsession of Culpeper and the curious incident of Jupiter and Henbane. And it's all Grieve's fault.



She quotes Culpeper:

'I wonder how astrologers could take on them to make this an herb of Jupiter: and yet Mizaldus, a man of penetrating brain, was of that opinion as well as the rest: the herb is indeed under the dominion of Saturn and I prove it by this argument: All the herbs which delight most to grow in saturnine places are saturnine herbs. Both Henbane delights most to grow in saturnine places, and whole cart loads of it may be found near the places where they empty the common Jakes, and scarce a ditch to be found without it growing by it. Ergo, it is a herb of Saturn.
Nicolas Culpeper, as quoted in A Modern Herbal

While I don't think much of his argument, Culpeper was notorious for his obsession with "slightly toxic = SATURNINE!!!eleventyone!!!", I can't see why anyone can argue that Henbane is a Jovian herb, when it plainly is Saturnine. Let's not worry about where it grows for now, Rosebay Willowherb grows in the same places and *that* one is most definitely a herb of Jupiter. But Henbane has certainly been considered under the rule of Jupiter at one point - in fact one of its common names is Jupiter-bean.

Henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) is a particularly noxious herb. I've had the fortune to stumble across it once and it's... noxious. No other word for it. It has a sickly scent, pale sickly green leaves which are sticky and covered in down. Sort of like lung-butter*. It droops its head wearily and its bell-like flowers are a pale cream with yellowy purple veins. Sound pretty?

Well, Grieves thought so. Here is her illustration to accompany the rather terrifying write-up



This is the plant my father photographed (once I'd identified it) back in June 2005:



Not so pretty, eh?

cuvalwen's theory is that its the purple and cream flowers that places Henbane under the rule of Jupiter, but in that case I would argue that the Astrologers concerned had never seen the plant in the flesh, so to speak. Certainly I can see nothing Jovial about Henbane.

And, if you add in its effect of

'The leaves, the seeds and the juice, when taken internally cause an unquiet sleep, like unto the sleep of drunkenness, which continueth long and is deadly to the patient. To wash the feet in a decoction of Henbane, as also the often smelling of the flowers causeth sleep.'
John Gerard, as quoted in A Modern Herbal

It's even more puzzling. Herbs of Hypnos/Morpheus are normally rolled up into Saturn in Astrology.

Does anyone know where this dissenting opinion comes from?

I shall now return you to the regular schedule of meerkats, knitting and fanfic woes.

* What a polite term for what is basically phlegm. Oh yes.

Comments

[peppapig.livejournal.com]

If you wish for company on the kew visit, I'd (we'd) be up for that! Not seen you in aaaaaaaaaaages. Hope all is well?

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

Ooh, definitely. We'll have to coordinate. C and I are pretty much tied up for the next two weekends, unfortunately - perhaps a ramble on the w/end of the Spring Equinox might be timely.

Is there a W/S tonight? I might be able to pop my head in for a few moments.

[peppapig.livejournal.com]

Yes, there is a WS tonight but we *may* meet in a new place...

[m31andy.livejournal.com]

... ooh, change of venue! Is this the one briefly mentioned in the last couple of month's posts to the group? If so, let me know and I'll pop down.

[peppapig.livejournal.com]

Nope - totally new! Crown & Anchor near Warren St, Euston Square and Euston stations. On the corner of Drummond St. No idea which other one we mentioned...

http://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/mels/HDL2004_15.pdf

[tyrell.livejournal.com]

I went to the British Library today, and randomly, off the shelf, for the first time picked up and read Thistelton-Dyer's Folk-Lore of Plants :) So the answer is, I didn't know! But I do now.